On 4/7/06, Sasha Z <kleptophobiac at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 4/7/06, Mike Grusin <mgrusin at comcast.net> wrote:
> > > It looks great!
> >
> > Ditto! <thumbsup> If I may ask, do you have any tips for hand-assembling
> > surface-mount PCBs? So far I've only done through-hole projects myself, but
> > it's getting steadily tougher to find those parts these days.
> >
> > Excellent job! -Mike G.
>> Thanks!
>> There are only a few things I suggest for SMD stuff. Get a good
> soldering iron with temperature control. I have a discontinued Weller
> WES50 and love it. Get the extra fine tip point for it, and keep the
> temperature knob about halfway when doing surface mount stuff.
>> Use a fine rosin core solder on clean copper. After I etch my boards I
> go over them with steel wool and then acetone before soldering them
> up. It makes for better wetting and less running of solder over
> traces. Pre tinning pads and then removing the excess with solder wick
> is helpful for very high density SM parts (think QFP). Normal stuff,
> like SOIC, doesn't need as much preparation.
> _______________________________________________
I fear soldering, and don't understand a lot of technical drawings
(regardless of how many wiring classes I've taken :D ). So I bought
my IR Receiver, and really like it! It's one of the serial cases
wrapped around a board, with 3 wires sticking out where the IR
receiver itself is.
Anyway, to my point:
I can't remember where I bought it (pity, I really like it). Any
chance you are looking at mass producing like 5 of these for a small
price. I paid somewhere in the $15 USD ballpark which included
shipping for the one I have.
Just a thought, when I build more boxes, I always end up dragging the
one I have to the one I'm currently using, quite a pain when more than
1 TV is wanting to be watched.
Chad